Starting circuits for gaseous discharge lamps are well known. Generally these circuits provide a ballast transformer in series with the load, i.e. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,575,001 to L. F. Bird (Nov. 13, 1951); 3,364,386 to Y. Segawa et al (Jan. 16, 1968); 3,383,558 to Waymouth (May 14, 1968); 3,407,334 to Attewell (Oct. 22, 1968); 3,917,976 (Nov. 4, 1975) and 3,963,958 (June 15, 1976) both to J. Nuckolls. The transformer may have a tapped winding aid in the production of a high voltage pulses along with an R-C network, the network being in parallel with the lamp load. Another approach is shown in my co-pending application Ser. No. 318,466 filed Nov. 5, 1981, now abandoned in favor of a continuation in part which issued Nov. 15, 1983 as U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,837.
In these systems, all the current for the lamp in both the starting mode and in the operating mode must pass through the transformer. Naturally, the transformer must have the current carrying capability to sustain this activity.